Not Applicable
The present invention relates to a chest/belly wrap device, more specifically a wrap device with fabric (with/without pads attached) covering the torso to promote crawling, provide cushion, and/or keep body warm. This wrap device comprises fabric to cover the chest or belly or both, partially or completely with straps attached to the fabric to tie or fasten at the back or side of the torso to hold the fabric on the torso. Fabric and pad/pads can be of different thicknesses to adjust the height of the torso from ground and give more room and angle for the baby's hands and legs to move or push and thus promote crawling. Fabric and pad/pads can also provide cushion and keep body warm. It can be worn for child older than 7 months and can be worn for adults too to keep body warm.
Crawling involves the baby's whole-body translational motion. It is the first and longest period that babies will put weight through their hands and legs to develop strength, and stability. It can help develop a baby's muscle strength, balance, motor skills, and coordination. These are critical elements for a baby's development. Some babies skip crawling completely. Some babies crawl in sideways or use bottom to scoot. These are undesirable for baby's motor skills, balance, and coordination development. Thus, it is important to have devices to help promote or assist crawling. However, most prior art devices for promoting crawling are bulky, not easy to use, and uncomfortable. Also, it is common that blanket/comforter may be kicked off during sleep, and easy to get sick. Most prior art devices to keep body warm have fabric cover or wrap around the whole body or torso (front, back, and side). It is bulky, uncomfortable, difficult to use, and has no air circulation. It is needed to have a device to keep the torso covered (partially or completely) during sleep or anytime to keep the body warm.
U.S. Patent 2012/0284925A1 to D. J. Bennett, is a device with a rigid fabric-covered foam back panel attached with straps wrapped around the infant and secured to the front panel. A chest or belly pad is attached to the front of the baby to encourage the use of arms and legs in crawling.
This device's back panel is wider than the baby's body and extends the full length of the torso. These make it bulky, not easy to use, and uncomfortable. The straps secured to the front panel also limit the location of the pad's attachment to the front panel.
U.S. Patent 2014/0291952A1 to K. Lehman and OH Akron, is a device with a padded U-shaped frame and a set of wheels attached. The U-shaped frame includes a set of stabilizing rods on opposite sides to prevent falling to one side.
The device's wheels and stabilizing rods make it bulky, heavy, not easy to use, and uncomfortable. The height of wheel and U-shaped frame dominate the height of the torso from ground. These make it difficult to adjust the height of the torso (adjust filler thickness in the compartment array opening) from the ground to promote crawling.
U.S. Patent 2008/0047043A1 to Carmen Flores-Garvey is an infant wrapping device with a pair of crawling pants or overalls. It is difficult to wear pants or overalls for infants. This device is also bulky, heavy, and difficult for an infant to move around.
U.S. Patent 2002/6415442 B1 to Brenda M. Smith is a device of a quadrangular sheet of fabric. It has a head aperture, arm apertures, and leg apertures. It is difficult to wear with all these apertures for infants. Also, it covers the whole torso, front, back, and side. It is bulky, has no or little air circulation, and is uncomfortable.
U.S. Patent 2008/0208298 A1 to Hagay Mizrahi is a device of upper body wrap with a cover having upper and lower layers joined at their outer edges with a head aperture. Like previous prior art, it covers the whole torso, and it is bulky, heavy, and uncomfortable.
The objective of the present invention is to provide a wrap device covering part or whole torso to promote crawling and/or provide a cushion. The wrap device can be made with soft fabric (with or without straps attached) to fasten or tie at the back or side of the torso to hold the fabric on the torso. This wrap is lightweight and easy to put on with or without straps. The wrap fabric can be of different thicknesses to adjust the height of the body from ground to create room and angle to facilitate the baby's hand and leg's movement to promote crawling. Single or multiple pads can be attached to the wrap fabric to further adjust the height of the body from ground to provide more room and angle to ground for hands and legs to push and crawl more easily and efficiently. Pad or Pads can be permanently attached like sewing or glue or removable attached to the fabric with fasteners like Velcro, or button or clip or zipper. This wrap/pad device can also provide extra cushion/protection to the torso.
The other objective of the present invention of the wrap (with or without pad/pads) device covering part or whole torso or wrap around torso is to keep body warm during sleep or awake. It is common that a baby or child or even an adult may kick off blanket/comforter or blanket/comforter may fall off from the body during sleep. This is because it easily gets hot and uncomfortable when the body is fully covered with a blanket/comforter and no air circulation to the covered body. With the present invention, wrap fabric with or without pad/pads only covers partially or completely the front of torso (most internal organ residing) to keep the important part of the body warm and have air circulation to other parts of the body. Also, if needed, this device can be used in conjunction with a blanket/comforter to help keep the body warm during sleep.
This wrap device system can be employed not just on babies, it can also be used on children (older than 7 months), or adults to keep the body warm during sleep (avoid getting cold or sick) or awake.
With reference to
For
While particular embodiments of the invention have been shown and described, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that changes and modifications in the form and detail may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.